Parents Sue After Daughter Committed

A Northampton County family has filed suit in federal court charging that police and a public health official wrongly committed their daughter.

The suit says the commitment was based on a false report that she was suicidal and charges that police assaulted the father when he questioned them.

William and Elizabeth Arey, and their daughter, Patricia, of 837 Chapel St., North Catasauqua, said the police and the public health official acted without probable cause when they responded to the allegedly unsubstantiated report on Jan. 6, 1987.

Named in the suit, filed Wednesday, are Jean Brown, who at the time of the incident was an employee of Northampton County's Mental Health/Mental Retardation Division, Kim Moyer, chief of the North Catasauqua Police Department, and North Catasauqua police Officer Leonard Kleppinger.

According to the suit, the three arrived at the Arey household Jan. 6 around 11 p.m. and announced they had a court order to involuntarily commit Patricia Arey because of suicidal threats she made to a friend. Arey allegedly told the friend she had tried to slash her wrists the day before, but even after Arey showed she had no marks on her wrists the defendants insisted on committing her, the suit said.

When William Arey, 56, asked to see their warrant, the defendants refused. He then told them his daughter was diabetic and asked them to leave, whereupon Moyer rushed him and threw him to the ground, the suit says.

Moyer then jabbed Elizabeth Arey in her right upper arm when she bent down to ask Moyer to release her husband and Kleppinger grabbed her by the neck and arm and pushed her against a closet door, the suit says.

Arey was taken to the Muhlenberg Hospital Center where she was found not to be suicidal by a physician and was released after midnight to her parents, who had driven to the hospital, the suit said.

The suit charges that as a result of Moyer's and Kleppinger's assault, William Arey suffered a fractured rib, his right toenail was ripped off, he strained his left hand and had cuts on his chin. His wife sustained bruises on both arms.

Harold J.J. DeWalt Jr., one of the Areys' lawyers, said the "friend" may have made the report out of jealousy or spite and the defendants overreacted in the situation.

After the incident William Arey, an employee of Bethlehem Steel for 36 years, was also charged with obstruction of justice, but the charges were later dismissed by a judge, DeWalt said.

According to the application for involuntary emergency examination and treatment under which Arey was committed, Debra Lynn Grischott, of 1518 Sage St., S.W. Allentown, reported Arey's suicidal threats.

Grischott said Friday that she contacted Brown after Arey told her she wanted help. She also said it was not the first time Arey talked of suicide. Grischott said jealousy had nothing to do with her reporting Arey's suicidal threats.

DeWalt refused to comment onGrischott's remarks, saying he was not in a position to make a statement because of client confidentiality. "No matter what the substance of the story is it doesn't have anything to do with their intrusion and what they did to the mother and father," he said.

Brown, a social worker at Easton Hospital, could not be reached for comment. Moyer and Kleppinger also could not be reached for comment.